exploring and celebrating food

Contact Us/About Us

The Brief Bio

Co-founders of The Potato Museum, a 501c3, and its offshoot, The FOOD Museum On-Line, Tom Hughes and Meredith Sayles Hughes are dedicated to discovering, exploring and promoting the world's foods, their histories, and relevance today. High on their list: the establishment of a national museum dedicated to food, possibly on the Mall in Washington, DC.

Their last book, "Gastronomie! Food Museums and Heritage Sites of France," published by Bunker Hill, 2006. Their most recent exhibition: "Spuds Unearthed," at the US Botanic Garden, Washington, DC, in 2010.

Yes, we have no bricks and mortar location for The FOOD Museum library and collections, and yes, we welcome initiatives to create a permanent home for them.

Contact us by phone at 505 401 8922, or feel free to email us using the form below.

The Longer Bio....

Meredith Sayles Hughes and Tom Hughes are the founders of The Potato Museum and The Food Museum on Line. The museums research, collect, preserve, exhibit and explain the history and social significance of the world's most important foods, and bring artifacts and programs to audiences of all ages.

The Hugheses have been exploring food history since the mid-1970’s, when Tom founded The Potato Museum in Brussels, Belgium. Meredith and Tom have worked on three major exhibitions about food--- one for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History called "Seeds of Change;" "The Amazing Potato," for the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa, Ontario, and their 2010 exhibition, "Spuds Unearthed!," which ran for six months at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, DC.

Author of several articles on food history, Meredith created the award-winning 10 book series, "Plants We Eat," published by Lerner Publishing, Minneapolis. She also writes food-related blogs, and has been a workshop presenter at the International Association of Culinary Professionals Annual Conference. Tom, a teacher, did two national tours for Frito-Lay, appearing on radio and tv talk shows, both national and local, including Late Night with David Letterman.

Meredith and Tom have collaborated on a wide range of public programs and lectures, both here and abroad, as well as teacher workshops, school presentations, panels, and "The Great Potato Book," Macmillan Publishing.

The Hughes’ guide to the food–related museums/sites/shrines of France, the mother country of the food-preoccupied, was published by Bunker Hill. "Gastronomie! Food Museums and Heritage Sites of France "spotlights the top French food history sites as well as mini food travel itineraries, and regional recipes.

EATSAlaska, EATSFlorida, Food Historic: Sites/Stuff, and My Food History are among the blogs under the umbrella of foodmuseum.com.